This invention relates in general to the construction of mining equipment and in particular to a new and useful hauling and shaving plant for underground mining.
The invention concerns a hauling and shaving plant in underground mining, with a longwall conveyor extending up to a head zone in front of a coal face, with a plane guide at the coal face end and a coal plane guided thereon, where the longwall conveyor carries at its head and foot a driving unit for the hauling chain and the shaving chain, and where the driving units for the hauling chain and the shaving chain are arranged at the rock face end.
Hauling and shaving plants for drawing hook planes are known, where not only the driving unit for the hauling chain, but also for the shaving chain, as well as the plane guide are arranged at the rock face end, and the pulling strand as well as the return strand of the shaving chain are guided in chain channels at the rock face end.
In addition, hauling and shaving plants are known for gliding planes where the driving unit for the shaving chain and the plane guide are guided at the coal face end and correspondingly the pulling strand and the return strand of the shaving chain in chain channels at the rock face end. A problem in these hauling and shaving plants is that the coal plane cannot be moved in the drift region along the coal face because of the driving and guide mechanism, so that a dead region, remains in the transition range from the longwall to the head drift, which must be cleared manually. In order to avoid these inconveniences, an older patent of the applicant provides to arrange the driving unit for the shaving chain at the rock face end, even in hauling and shaving plants for gliding conveyors. But even in this embodiment, pulling strand and return strand of the shaving chain run in chain channels of the plane guide at the coal face end. Of the two superposed chain channels, the bottom chain channel for the return strand is relatively difficult to access, because it is only open on the longwall conveyor end toward the footwall. Though this type of chain guidance is acceptable, it still needs improvement in case of a chain break in the return strand, that is, in the bottom part of the chain channel.
Because in such a case the return strand of the shaving chain should be relatively easily accessible for the necessary repairs.